Manatt White Collar Co-Chair Comments on DOJ and SEC's Newly Issued FCPA Guide

"SEC Releases Guidance on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act"
Business Insurance

November 14, 2012 - Manatt's Jacqueline Wolff, co-chair of the firm's Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense Practice, commented on the 120-page guide, "A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Business Insurance reports that the recently released guidance on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act provides information about the law for any size enterprise involved in multinational business. The long-awaited guide aims to address topics including who and what is covered by the FCPA anti-bribery and accounting provisions; the definition of "foreign official"; what constitutes proper and improper gifts; facilitating payments; and travel and entertainment expenses. It also outlines the DOJ and SEC's approach to FCPA enforcement.

The guide "addresses thorny questions relating to successor liability, definition of an instrumentality and hospitality questions," said Wolff. "Although DOJ has noted its views with respect to some of these issues in papers submitted to the courts in FCPA prosecutions and in its opinion procedure releases, this is the first time DOJ and the SEC have collected their views in one place and anonymously disclosed the facts of cases where they decided not to prosecute."